The reason I love summer

This:

How do I love sunny days and my little boy, let me count the ways. I love how excited he gets when he figures out the nozzle on the hose. I love how he runs manically in circles with his lawnmower, stopping every five minutes or so to run up and tell me he 'needs kiss'. I love watching my husband chase his son, knowing that he is squealing on the inside as much as our little boy is on the outside. This is a good time of year.

Mini "Maternity" Shoot

This past weekend we had a little mini "Maternity" shoot. I use quotations marks because it wasn't anything done professionally, we don't have any extra funds laying around for such occasions. My mother in law however is pretty handy with her camera and obliged us by taking some pictures of the 3, almost 4, of us. I have loads of pictures of just Skyler, and a few more of myself recently due to documentary purposes, but there is a shocking dearth of photos including the whole family. We have a few attempts from the recent holidays, but not enough to satisfy me. I also wanted to have some photographic evidence to look back upon this particular point in our lives. My MIL took quite a few photos of which we really like just a handful. The blame for this partially belongs on the fact that we ran late and missed the good early morning light. The rest can be chalked up to the difficulty of obtaining a "good" photo of three people, one being two years old. Enough disclaimer, here they are:

Unscheduled appearance of the water toys

We got home from work/daycare/our day and realized it was really quite a nice day outside. Most days getting out of the car Skyler would prefer to stay outside anyways, but today we just had no excuse to go back indoors. He also recently rediscovered a favorite toy from last summer, something unearthed by Andy in the process of cleaning out the back of our car. Before we knew it Skyler was stripped down and in his swimming trunks acting out a scene I really didn't expect to see anytime before July. Not quite summer, but we are getting there.

Signs of Spring

Not to jinx anything, especially with our grand plans for outdoor work this weekend, but I think that Spring has finally sprung around here! The birds are out, little green things are growing, and we have reached the 60's (tomorrow maybe 70's). I never truly appreciated warmer weather until having Skyler, and especially an older Skyler who wants to be outside all the time and doesn't understand why rain -and snow- prevents that. So warmer weather is definitely welcome.

We have been taking advantage of the bits of sunshine as much as we can. One of the things Skyler received for his birthday was a little lawnmower which he LOVES. Every time the door opens he tries to run outside with it. He really appreciated the opportunity to try it out while helping Daddy mow the lawn the other day. Daddy just enjoyed the chance to interact, and terrorize, his little boy. So sweet.

Skye also got a break from his usual Wednesday of daycare this week and went off with my MIL and BIL to go see some tulip fields. He apparently enjoyed this immensely with the exception of the little train they tried to get him to ride. Skyler is very enamored of all things automotive/locomotive - from a distance. He would much rather look at that tractor or train or ride on car than be placed at the helm of said vehicle. He was very polite in his rejection of the train though, remembering to shout 'No dank you' instead of just no. Glad that is sinking in :).

Toddler travel - the North Carolina edition

Done. Done with my last flight before Mason's arrival. And likely my last flight ever again with a toddler. If family, or anyone, wishes to see the children prior to their turning five they are welcome to come and visit. I, however, will not willingly board a plane and agree to enclose myself in a small cabin with an almost two year old for any extended period of time. Ever. It wasn't the worst it could have been, but then it certainly wasn't the best. Skyler did do an admirable job in the airports, and for about 3/4 of the overall flight time. But the last 1/4 that was filled with crying, flailing, and screaming was really enough to outweigh all the sweet, quiet play time that might have preceded said events. Dealing with a thrashing, tantrum throwing toddler will pinned between my mother and a complete (and unsympathetic) stranger... shudder.

That said, everything about the trip that occurred outside of the plane and the airport was lovely. Skyler absolutely thrived in all the fresh air and sunshine. My grandmother lives directly off of a golf course in the midst of a forest of pine trees. Lots of green and open spaces and dirt to dig and play in. It was really quite ideal, and a huge improvement over the conditions (hotel room) we had when visiting family in New Mexico.

It was really just a lot of fun to watch Skyler experience the outdoors at this age. Since it has still been too cold back home for him to enjoy any extended periods of time outside this was really the first time, as a toddler, that he has had full reign of an outdoor environment. He loved it. He played with his cars and tractors in the dirt, ran wild around the local park, tried to climb the tree in my grandma's backyard. He even experienced something I remember enjoying about visiting my grandparents when I was younger: the golf cart. Big perk of having a grandparent that lives off of a golf course, they drive these things everywhere. It took a bit of convincing each time to get him out of this thing, but he was awfully cute in his devotion to it. Unfortunately for him, owning such a thing where we live is both unlikely and impractical.

I was worried about how he would react to my grandma, not only because she was stranger but one in a wheel chair. Missing a leg. These are things that aren't very easy to explain to a toddler. He was pretty wary of her for the first day or so, but frankly I think he was more concerned about not knowing her in general than of her being on wheels. I think he actually liked her wheelchair, he is a big fan of all things mobile. I can't say if he even processed the fact that she was missing a limb, but atleast he didn't make a show of noticing it or act scared around her. Ignorance is bliss in a toddler I guess.

Physically I was a wreck after this trip, as I was with the first one. There is just no getting comfortable when pregnant and travelling. I was immensely relieved to be returned back to my own bed, and pillow, and the waiting help of my husband. My family is on notice, this pregnant lady doesn't fly anymore.

Winter wonderland

One of my greatest reliefs in moving out of Spokane was the knowledge that I would never again have to face a winter full of snow. That said, a bit here and there isn't necessarily a bad thing. Especially when it is so cute to see my little boy play in it. No other words really for this, but lots of pictures (and a video!). Enjoy.

So is it sad that three days away from the internets can make me feel like I have dropped off the side of the earth? I am thinking it's probably a bad sign. However, I am glad to be back and see that I have missed some wonderful news in my absence. Ann(ie) decided to jump on the baby number two bandwagon, she wasn't kidding about that blog water ;). Go over and wish her well on this exciting news!

The reason for my absence, and lack of blogging, these past few days was a beach trip. One would think that going to the beach in late October wouldn't make sense, but then that would show just how un-Northwest you are. The beaches around here are always cold, so really a late year beach trip doesn't vary a whole lot from one done earlier in the spring or summer. You still wouldn't want to get in the water. We went out with the extended family to Lincoln City this past weekend to rest and recuperate- and to give the kiddo his first beach experience. He loved it! All of that open expanse, and the wa-wa, oh the wa-wa. That's water, for the un-initiated. He ran like the wild man he is, up and down the beach. Then up to the water, and away from the water when it came crashing back in. We also took him to the Oregon Coast aquarium, another thing he loves. MR loves feesh, he really enjoyed looking in all the tanks though he wasn't quite brave enough to try touching any of them yet. We had a great time, mostly just from watching our little mister experience all these new sensations and wonder at the little (and big) things this world has to offer. The blonde people in the following photos are BL's older siblings, fyi.

*The early preggs tiredness has caught me up, can you tell?

Pumpkin patch, the marathon

We went to the pumpkin patch with some friends on Saturday and had a lot of fun, and a lot of exercise. This was our first true experience with a highly mobile toddler in a busy public space. It was exhausting. There was so much to see and do, the MR was just buzzing with energy as he moved from the goats to the haystacks to the pumpkins- and back to the goats. He loves goats apparently. It was definitely a fun trip and we really enjoyed getting together with our friends and our kiddos, but we are really coming to recognize the full force that is The Toddler. BL and I had to tag team who would follow/chase the kiddo as he bounced around the wide open spaces. We are starting to work on having him hold our hands in public, but with the combination of fresh air and livestock- it hasn't exactly stuck yet. By the end of it I was really dragging because it had been far too long between snacks, I forgot just how quickly I become unpleasant if not regularly dosed with food when pregnant. We finally wrangled MR and our oversized pumpkin into the car and no sooner were we out of the parking lot the little guy zonked. He had a full day, and I couldn't blame him. Here's the pictures from the day.

Catching up

It may just be me but I always feel like I am trying to catch up here. I swear we don't really do that much, but before I know it half a week and all it's occurrences have passed. Summertime does bring more photo opportunities, but still. It seems like I have to smush together so many different things into one post to regain my footing and catch up on time. Not that this will stop me from serving up a mishmash once again.

The MR has been getting lots of quality outdoor time lately. My parents have a wonderful backyard and there are several great parks nearby that the kiddo is just in love with. We went to one this past Friday when I was so lucky as to get off of work early.

His favorite parts of this particular park is the swings and the bark chips. He likes the swings for their swinginess and the bark chips for the eating, yes I said eating. Poor kid puts a handful in his mouth and then tries to extract the offending chips with a still bark covered hand. You would think this would deter him from a repeat act, but you would think wrong.

I think it is also important to mention that my child has a milkshake addiction. There is a local chain of fast food around here that uses all local produce and has THE best milkshakes ever. MR is enjoying the remains of my fresh raspberry shake above. As soon as he spies the cup he will toddle over and smile sweetly, knowing full well he will be sharing the dregs of our drink. Once he gets his hands on the cup though he is all business, and he doesn't take kindly to any direction or correction in how best to use the straw in this situation.

And last but not least, we went to another wedding this weekend. This should be our last for this year, which is good because I can only get so much mileage out of one dress. We ended up not taking the kiddo with us as it was a five hour drive and to the wedding location and we didn't really envision that going over to well with our 15 month old. We had a great time and were glad to share in our friends day, it had been a long time coming for them as the groom was one of the many whose deployments to Iraq was extended consequently missing their original wedding date.

Coming up this week: Our anniversary and house hunting!